COLLEGE OF MUSIC
Presents THE UNIVERSITY
WIND ORCHESTRA
Rodney Dorsey, Director
Andy Dubbert, Graduate Associate Conductor
with special guests
h2 Quartet
Geoffrey Deibel, Soprano Saxophone
Jeffrey Loeffert, Alto Saxophone
Jonathan Nichol, Tenor Saxophone
Kimberly Goddard Loeffert, Baritone Saxophone
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Seven-thirty in the Evening
Ruby Diamond Concert Hall
PROGRAM
Toccata Marziale (1924/2005) Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) ed. Battisti
El Muro (2008/2013) Ricardo Lorenz (b. 1961)
Andy Dubbert, graduate associate conductor
Second Nature (2024) Viet Cuong (b. 1990)
h2 Quartet
Geoffrey Deibel, soprano saxophone; Jeffrey Loeffert, alto saxophone
Jonathan Nichol, tenor saxophone; Kimberly Goddard Loeffert, baritone saxophone
INTERMISSION
Concerto for Wind Ensemble (2010)
Steven Bryant (b. 1972)
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting while performers are playing. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Please turn off cell phones and all other electronic devices. Please refrain from putting feet on seats and seat backs. Children who become disruptive should be taken out of the performance hall so they do not disturb the musicians and other audience members.
Rodney Dorsey is Professor of Music at the Florida State University College of Music where he conducts the FSU Wind Orchestra and guides the graduate wind conducting program.
Dorsey comes to FSU from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where he conducted the IU Wind Ensemble and taught graduate conducting courses. Prior to his tenure at the Jacobs School, Dorsey served on the faculties of the University of Oregon, University of Michigan, DePaul University and Northwestern University. He also gained extensive experience teaching in the public schools of Florida and Georgia.
Dorsey studied conducting with Mallory Thompson, John P. Paynter, and James Croft. He was a clarinet student of Fred Ormand and Frank Kowalsky.
During his conducting career, Dorsey has led performances at several prominent events including the American Bandmasters Association Convention, College Band Directors National Conference North/Northwest Regional Conference, and the Bands of America National Festival. He is active as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator in the United States. International engagements include Hungary, Canada, and Bulgaria.
Dorsey’s commitment to community has been demonstrated by his participation on the board of directors for Music for All and the Midwest Clinic. He currently serves as the president of the Midwest Clinic. Other professional memberships include the College Band Directors National Association, National Association for Music Education, Florida Bandmasters Association, Kappa Kappa Psi, Tau Beta Sigma (honorary), Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated. Dorsey is also an elected member of the American Bandmasters Association. Most recently Dorsey was named a Yamaha Master Educator.
The award-winning h2 quartet has been wowing audiences since 2002. h2 takes advantage of the great expressive capacity of their instrument by programming traditional, avant-garde, minimalist, and jazz-influenced works in surprising and compelling ways. h2 has performed throughout the United States, in Europe, the UK and in Asia.
The ensemble has released seven critically acclaimed recordings: Generations, Times & Spaces, Groove Machine, Hard Line, Enrapture, Soul Searching, and Infinity Mirror. These recordings feature some of the most cutting-edge composers of today, and often showcase unexpected and intriguing relationships between different kinds of popular and avant-garde music.
The h2 quartet has been featured on NPR and PBS programs, including the nationally syndicated Backstage Pass. Along with demonstrating a mastery of traditional quartet repertoire, h2 is dedicated to the commissioning and performing of new works. The quartet has commissioned works by Drew Baker, Claudio Gabriele, Takuma Itoh, David MacDonald, Victor Marquez-Barrios, Roger Petersen, Forrest Pierce, David Rakowski, Jesse Ronneau, Bill Ryan, Matthew Schoendorff, Daniel Wohl, and has premiered works by John Mackey, Marc Mellits, Mari Takano, and Amy Williams.
The h2 quartet has won prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (First Prize, Gold Medals) and the North American Saxophone Alliance Saxophone Quartet Competition (first prize), among others. The group was also finalists in the Concert Artists Guild Competition and earned Honorable Mentions at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition, the Chesapeake Bay Chamber Music Competition, and the Coleman Chamber Music Competition. The ensemble’s recording of Marc Mellits’ “Groove Canon” was featured as the monologue theme music for the Broadway show The Heidi Chronicles, starring Elisabeth Moss and Jason Biggs. h2 is also the recipient of several Aaron Copland Fund Grants.
The h2 quartet is a Vandoren and Yamaha Artist Ensemble.
Vaughan Williams: Toccata Marziale
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) was an English composer whose works remain prominent in the British concert repertoire. He studied composition, organ, and piano at the Royal College of Music in London, where he became lifelong friends with his classmate Gustav Holst. Following his service in the First World War, Vaughan William’s compositions were influenced by his wartime experience. He continued to write several symphonies, works for band and orchestras, and several chamber works including settings of poems with piano accompaniment. He received many accolades during his career which led to the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society being formed after his death. His likeness is displayed at various locations across England, with a commissioned official portrait hanging at The Royal College of Music.
As defined by the title, Toccata Marziale (1924) is a march style toccata intended to showcase the wind bands virtuosic technique and capability. A toccata (meaning to touch) is traditionally written for piano and organ intended to demonstrate the musician’s expressivity and dexterity. Vaughan Williams pushes the boundaries of the wind band as Toccata Marziale provides textbook examples of contrapuntal writing including contrapuntal melodies, canon, and fugal writing. The composer demands various levels of “touch” from the wind band as they strive to achieve true virtuosic toccata style. Toccata Marziale is commonly found on excerpt lists for tuba and euphonium auditions, and many past and current premiere wind band conductors have considered the composition to be of serious artistic merit.
Lorenz: El Muro
Ricardo Lorenz (b. 1961) is a Venezulan-born composer and educator. Lorenz received his master’s degree in music from Indiana University and a PhD in composition from the University of Chicago. Following appointments at Indiana University, the University of Chicago, and City Colleges of Chicago, he now is an associate professor of composition at Michigan State University. Lorenz has worked with many outstanding musicians as a performer and arranger including Tito Puente, David Sánchez, Claudia Pérez, and Farred Haque. His compositions are known for their fiery orchestration, harmonic sophistication, and rhythmic vitality.
El Muro (2008) was commissioned by the American Bandmasters Association and the University of Florida and was premiered by the UF Wind Symphony conducted by David Waybright. Raised in South America, Lorenz recalls many walls topped with barbed wire intended to keep people out. Lorenz captures many Latin American styles, several of which are inspired by the Columbian cumbia, Peruvian huayno, Mexican son, and Cuban montuno. Using a Gaita theme, established immediately in the work and continued throughout, the theme works to unite and humanize the cultures and traditions separated by walls. El Muro (the wall), is “a wall of sound pushing its way up north, each brick a
soulful tune, each partition a testimony of resilience.”
Cuong: Second Nature
Viet Cuong (b. 1990) is a Vietnamese-American composer who was born in California and grew up in Marietta, GA. Viet is a proud alum of Lassiter High School, Peabody Conservatory where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music, the Curtis Institute of Music where he received his artist diploma, and lastly, Princeton University where completed a PhD in 2021. Viet’s music has been performed on six different continents and has been featured in prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center. His wind ensemble works have been performed by university ensembles worldwide including at Midwest, WASBE, and CBDNA. He is the current Composer-in-Residence with the Pacific Symphony and is an Assistant Professor of Music Composition and Theory at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Alongside a consistent stream of accolades, his music continues to be programmed by the nation’s best academic institutions and professional ensembles including the Dallas Wind Symphony, and many of the military bands including the Navy Band, the “President’s Own” Marine Band, and the “Pershing’s Own” Army Band.
Second Nature (2022) was commissioned by a consortium led by Sarah McKoin, director of bands at Texas Tech University. The title “Second Nature” refers to a skill or ability that began as an arduous challenge, but feels effortless following mastery. Viet described his early joy for composition, saying that writing music just felt like play. Following a shift to a more dark and introspective style following 2020, Second Nature symbolizes his return to a relearned and rediscovered nature, for the second time around. The composition showcases Viet’s signature style: electronic-inspired textures achieved through acoustic means while featuring a saxophone quartet with the wind ensemble. Over the course of three unbroken movements, Second Nature has an infectious house music style that successfully achieves its intended personality of “unbridled joy.”
Bryant: Concerto for Wind Ensemble
Steven Bryant (b. 1972) is an American composer and conductor originally from Little Rock, Arkansas. Bryant’s upbringing was incredibly influential to his development as a musician, to the extent that he shares his affection for his parents—notably his father—on his composition website. Ron Bryant (1942 – 2005) was a band director for 36 years and a skilled professional trumpet player who performed in both orchestral and jazz settings with many renowned artists including Isaac Hayes, Doc Severinson, Boots Randolf, and James Brown. This foundational musical upbringing propelled Bryant to study music composition with William Francis McBeth at Ouachita University, Cindy McTee at the University of North Texas, and John Corigliano at The Julliard School. Bryant is passionate about music education, and his compositions span a range of difficulty levels and settings, making them accessible to varying settings and to musicians of differing technical abilities. Bryant is a forerunner in composing with electronics, and his work Ecstatic Waters has
served as a trail blazer in these types of compositions in both wind band and orchestral literature.
Commissioned by Commander Donald Schofield, the then conductor of the United States Air Force Band of Mid-America, Concerto for Wind Ensemble (2010) is a complex work that requires and demonstrates virtuosity. Around the audience are three antiphonal groups, strategically placed in the form of a diamond—a primary formation of the USAF Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Squadron. The first movement fulfilled the request and of the commission and was completed in 2006. In 2009, a consortium led by Jerry Junkin commissioned the remainder of the concerto, which resulted in a composition that showcases both individual and ensemble virtuosity with only 54,210 notes.
Mvt. I: A five note theme is introduced as foundational material and is recalled throughout the work. Notably, a chordal progression inspired by the band Radiohead is introduced by the solo vibraphone and continued throughout the composition in various forms. Just as the 5th pilot in the Thunderbirds is at the bottom of the formation—typically flying upside down—the group in the back of the audience, including clarinet 5 and trumpet 5, frequently play inversions of the material performed by the ensemble on stage.
Mvt. II: This movement relies heavily on the surround ensembles, while featuring several flute soloists. The movement develops over time by using a trill from F-sharp to a G and finally arrives at a momentous G major chord 5 minutes into the movement.
Mvt. III: The vibraphone (Radiohead) rhythm returns, and a jazz influence emerges throughout the movement. As a musical “nod” to his father, Bryant incorporates melodic material from a transcription of one of his father’s improvised solos.
Mvt. IV: This movement was influenced by Webern’s Six Pieces for Orchestra and Altered States by Corigliano (his former teacher). Again, the surround ensembles play a critical role in the sonic experience and development of this movement.
University Wind Orchestra Personnel
Rodney Dorsey, Conductor
Andy Dubbert, Graduate Associate Conductor
Piccolo
Steven Fireman
Flute
Pamela Bereuter*
Nikkie Galindo
Jordi Bannitt
Kaitlyn Calcagino
Claire ‘Parky’ Park
Oboe
Nic Kanipe*
Samantha Osborne
English Horn
Alec McDaniel
Bassoon
Ryder Kaya*
Hunter Fisher
Contra Bassoon
Jake Narona
E-flat Clarinet
Brad Pilcher
B-flat Clarinet
Anne Glerum*
Dave Scott*
Hannah Faircloth
Travis Irizarry
Jenna Eschner
Andrew Prawat
Jaxon Stewart
Hali Alex
Jariel Santiago
Bass Clarinet
Morgan Magnoni
Alto Saxophone
Micah Cheng*
Luis Angel
Jack Blumer
Tenor Saxophone
Kaeden Parks
Baritone Saxophone
Parker Button
Trumpet
Johniel Nájera*
Easton Barham
Jeremiah Gonzalez
Danielle Monahan
Wayne Pearcy
Schelvin Robinson
Noah Solomon
Horn
Tommy Langston*
Eric On*
Jordan Perkins
Clare Ottesen
Isaac Roman
Trombone
Grant Keel*
Connor Altagen
Justus Smith
Bass Trombone
Brent Creekmore
Euphonium
Anthony Gonzalez*
Cayden Miller*
Tuba
Colin Teague*
Charlie Nelson
String Bass
Joshua Dennis
Percussion
Austin Pelella*
Kylan Bigby
Jake Fenoff
Ian Guarraia
Jackson Kowalczyk
Will Vasquez
Jessica Weinberg
Piano
Lujie Wang
Harp
Noa Michaels * Principal
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